Tag: Digital marketing

It’s 2020 and the world’s taken a massive hit economically by the outbreak of COVID-19 – what does that mean for your business?

Two methods how businesses and international organisations have responded up till now:

Drastic financial cuts within company’s overall budget by furloughing staff, making redundancies, and minimising operational costs with uncertainty of how to recover or going out of business.

2. Creatively strategised innovative tactics and strategy on being advantageous to exploit business, marketing and entrepreneurial opportunities in economic downturn.

Now both our agency team and you reading this know very well how to respond within these times depends on your industry, expertise, company size and scope of operations.

However, even if your business or brand was a less-than-5-year start-up or an established player in the game; we must leverage and optimise what’s NOT on quarantine or lockdown – OUR digital marketing.

Whether influencers are dormant these days, offline marketing vendors have hung up their Closed till further notice signs, or other promotional stakeholders are quarantined themselves; your power lies within the internet for your digital marketing strategy.

Take time to observe what’s going on in people’s livelihoods and concerns, the wider society, global affairs and the aftermath of how people are responding to COVID-19; to even open holes within your competitors’ activities before formulating a plan of action.

You may not be trading and generating consistent revenue and cash flow in abundance, yet we’ll share with you some creative tactics to take advantage and control of any global crisis dilemma through digital marketing.

Let’s get started:

Plan out 3-4 crisis objectives on digital

As brands and organisations operate around a specified number of business goals (usually 3-4), so must you as a founder, CEO, director or buzzing entrepreneur anticipate economic crash and downturn periods by setting crisis objectives for digital.

How many businesses whether B2B or B2C are still glued to those strategies even in crisis?

When setting out crisis objectives for digital, visualise them as the guidepoints awakening a new direction within your product or service being beneficial and reassuring for distressed or panicky consumers within the economy. Your ideal customer or client express more frugality within their buyer behaviour, however this doesn’t mean they’ve stopped purchasing anything.

To inspire single parents through weekly lifestyle hacks when raising children through tough times

By reviewing each of these objectives, you can position your product or service within contextual value on digital cleverly; thereby tapping into the human psyche and emotions of potential customers and clients by reassurance and upliftment through your nation’s economic hardship.

The first objective is a perfect opportunity to harness a video on YouTube or a motivational image meme on Instagram or Facebook, whereas objective #2 evidently sets up marketers for an interactive email campaign where you can gather feedback from how you can help your e-commerce customers directly during COVID-19 or any other international crisis.

With objective #3, this can leverage your blog portfolio where you’ll be addressing consumers with potential financial or relationship challenges about how uplifting themselves as a role model towards their offspring in an inevitable yet temporary spin of life.

It’s you that knows how your brand or business operates to survive and capitalise, yet drafted crisis objectives stashed to one side WILL come in handy for maximum effect and profitable remembrance.

Select 3 marketing channels with human touch

During hard times of crisis either building or breaking mankind, every online user wants reassurance, satisfaction and clarity of their next move in life.

As the traditional economy faces a temporary pause, your business’ digital economy must start playing its course to adapt to change. The crisis eras are not like back in late 1930s in the US or early 2000s worldwide; we have more marketing channels and digital communication at our dispense as marketers and businesses.

Analyse your current audience and which online marketing channels they are most responsive to as a human being. These are the touchpoints you optimise in alignment with a tweaked digital strategy to accustom any crisis conditions, before speaking back humanely to boost one’s morale.

Our team have analysed different marketing channels within our past and up-to-date work within diverse sectors, holding strong beliefs towards social media, email and content marketing as the 3 main digital channels presenting human touch during any economic state.

The main goal of social media is to interact and engage with its users by digital nature, allowing people to voice out their opinions liberally without hindrance. Businesses during any crisis period must position themselves as ‘social initiators‘ of positivity and realism within affected nations and their industry, whilst monitoring their key consumers’ conversations and optimise content to engage and deliver reminiscent results that people, instituitions and other organisations will respect and value at post- crisis period.

However, email and content marketing share one major thing in common for people with uncertainty of a brighter tomorrow; direct communication targeting a direct audience of consumers.

When optimised correctly during any global crisis era, email campaigns embedded with relevant content that inspires or educates can drive great engagement, CTRs and awareness to even newer subscribers if cross-channelled across adaptive landing pages for your business offering.

Whatever the widespread crisis we’re facing in life, never overlook marketing channels with potential to adapt your tone of voice as we’re all humans with digital initiative.

Despite everyday news during any crisis inundating us with negativity, this is your opportunity within your business online to be the ‘positive news reporter‘.

Let’s be real; the news be it BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and so on is almost 3 quarters negative as this is what’s considered interesting and newsworthy to monetise from within the media & broadcasting industry. As any marketing leader or business pro of today, observe the flaws and resolve with a solution in your industry and other interconnected ones too.

If you hear news about unemployment rates rising = draft a blog about developing high income skills and building a pro’s profile.

News report about crime rates & incidents increasing = Record a video about keeping productive and focusing on personal development (even industry-related if possible) for IGTV, Facebook or YouTube.

News report about companies going into administration = Create a display campaign on Google offering educational courses for start-ups to established brands on crisis & financial management and survival know-how.

People may not be converting into customers or clientele from such content creation overnight, yet you’re delivering something different back to your community with the millions of eyes turning to the internet for pain alleviation, predictions and solutions during an economic crisis.

Evaluate performance and adjust accordingly for Future crisis

With crises happening every 10 years or so, it’s worthwhile as a business owner, founder or director to consider assessing your marketing performance and activity after performing the aforementioned and adjust for any future crisis.

As the world’s economic activity is unpredictable with uncontrollable affairs of life such as health pandemic outbreaks and environmental aftermath from industrious organisations using and exploiting natural resources; our industries are interlinked within how people make their livelihood.

If your crisis marketing campaigns may resort in laying off employees or downsizing, consider keeping your digital presence for profitability alive by hiring a few influencers with prominent impact; or even getting in touch with a creative marketing agency as secondary manpower.

By evaluating your digital activity and marketing operations in the marketplace, you fortify your business’ positioning to become recession-proof whilst also conserving your budgetary power and expenses.

Crisis may affect everybody at that particular time, yet don’t allow crisis to affect your bread-and-butter to the table as a marketer and active business.

How your customers, clients or target audience experience your brand or company is imperative for their affinity, loyalty and ultimately sustained conversion.

Do you think people repeat purchases or subscriptions with those who failed to deliver a pleasurable experience?

Many of us founders, directors and entrepreneurs understand how rhetorical this question is, yet why is it our marketing chiefs are deprioritising customer experience for innovation and business transformation?

According to Dentsu Aegis’ 2019 studies within Marketing Week, the majority of global CMOs are deviating away from customer experience as a paramount duty to any organisation’s marketing operations. If so, what does that mean for your digital marketing campaign’s value within your industry?

If there’s any mistake a B2C or B2B brand or organisation can commit; it’s dehumanising your online marketing strategies to attract.

Disruptive innovations are born yearly as often as new cars registrations manufactured.

However, innovations also get replaced by more contemporary technologies, ways and processes of doing things in life.

Out with the old, in with the new is the saying.

If customer experience within business wasn’t important for senior marketers, why do consumers still value reviews, testimonials, case studies or even the creative video ad on social platforms now?

Customer experience IS and ALWAYS remains a timeless task of marketing campaigns for every CMO to embrace. Disregarding its importance is disregarding the subsequent opportunity of lead generation from your prospects.

Amongst any business sector, your target audience has multiple perceptions of how your business interacts and engages their interests, emotions and long-term goals.

Ever heard of brand positioning before?

The way you position yourself within digital marketing campaigns reflects a customer experience as thought-provoking, entertaining, insightful, emotional or even action-taking.

Aiming for the action-taking positioning approach within your marketing and advertising campaigns is where lead-generation skills come in. Business founders and directors must ensure their marketing initiatives stimulate call-to-action within the sales cycle towards lucrative ROI to excel forward.

Take it as filtering out the clutter within the digital marketing funnel and extracting out pure, long-term profitability of potential customers, clients or subscribers most swayed away by experiential outreach online.

Email and social campaigns, video marketing, online advertising and blog posts = sign-ups, discounts or sales. These are the 3 main conversion actions each marketer, brand or business seeks from these channels long-term.

Yet, delivering a great customer experience remains always the cherry on the cupcake.

Non-pestering phone calls, personal data retained, face-to-face meetings with prospects – every business operates in a different industry so you’re aware which lead-gen tactics work best following up from your digital marketing strategy.

Never bake for success without a memorable, sweet or fresh sensation involved!

Overall, we strongly urge founders, CEOs and entrepreneurs to pay closer attention to how customer experience is equally your responsibility towards business growth and success as much as your senior marketer’s too.

Business transformation truly begins when a customer or client’s needs is fulfilled from a phenomenal marketing experience.

Retain or repel – the decision’s yours within the campaign management of your business.

What are you planning now?

Comment below

If you’re having extra thoughts on delivering the best customer experience possible with your digital campaigns – contact us at contacf@content-45.com and we’ll work together to achieve your marketing goals expected.

Bet you’ve heard these comments related to your business or brand from a friend or acquaintance, right?

Live-streaming and video nowadays are marketed worldwide as the fun channels of how people engage, update an audience and keep tech-trendy in our digitally enterprising era.

This may grab the attention span of your fans or targeted prospects, but is it the best way to convert?

Do not EVER let another person’s opinion conflict with the way you market yourself online.

Even if you’re frustrated from no profitable results, that haphazard marketing slip may not be right for the conversion you’re seeking.

To get business development for sales and conversion stronger; what ever your industry in 2019, the top rule to master is stop being a volatile marketer.

No one cares as much as you do about your business and its progress.

That person who suggested this isn’t with you consistently or deep in thoughts at night on how to grow and capitalise your career.

Start strategising and apply your selection of channels with wisdom from awareness to filtering your most interested customers and clients with the sweet close-convert-and-hook method.

Here’s some common 2018 marketing setbacks that can strengthen you for a better 2019 approach:

Not every social media channel is appropriate

How many social media channels do you have?

Whether you agree or disagree; a social media platform must be managed with purpose towards your brand’s digital marketing.

There must always be a final goal long-term to what you’re trying to achieve.

So what is it then??

You may have found yourself in 2018 adding on multiple platforms to your arsenal of marketing communications, ALL thanks to a misguided suggestion or observation of what’s trending and how your friends are engaging.

Even us as a digital agency made the same mistake earlier this year with Instagram.

From our experiences, we learnt, realised and summarised that without a thoroughly organised plan to why you’re on a social channel, your content and efforts published prove ephemeral without impact to your business goals.

Likes, views and black-hat comments don’t earn your living!

As the modern entrepreneur or marketer, enjoy social media features like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook stories as a consumer; but apply a different mindset when it’s your business.

If it means cutting off some social channels completely from your online presence, so be it if it’s not adding towards your final conversion goals.

Social media in business is not only for digital showcase and glamour; it’s a means to a profitable end for your 2019.

Blogging wasn’t your forte at the time

Did you know avoiding blogging is avoiding your web visibility’s ranking and searchability?

Some of you where this is going – yup, white-hat SEO!

As a goal-driven, hungry founder or marketer, you may have dodged the blogging cycle in 2018; however, it won’t do you better justice in 2019.

Being an enthusiastic writer of your industry and business not only gifts you with the skill of niche copywriting; it contributes to one or two marketing goals online which is brand awareness and engagement.

But where’s the value of blogging if I’m not converting?

The value lies within building and developing your website or blog channel’s content marketing for gradual ratings by Google.

Over time, a targeted prospect or potential customer’s search query may stumble across your relevant blog article and into your sales pipeline.

Not appreciating how search engine marketing works through blogging is a major disfavour for your business or brand.

Reconsider how powerful blogging is for your own industry marketing style in the new year and you’re revamping your 2019 marketing mindset.

Make great use of big data and marketing analytics for your campaigns in 2019 goes a long way towards how ANY enterprise or brand views digital campaigns.

Anyone can make noise online, but make noise with meaning and returns!

A static mind towards paid online advertising & budgeting

2018 may have been the year you started using paid advertising online like Google AdWords.

Reflect over the experience for a minute.

Did you set a high ad budget hoping to receive greater conversion?

Were you frustrated by poor results for yourself or on behalf of someone else’s advertising afterwards?

If so, maybe you weren’t entirely informed of the step-by-step process of trial and error, evaluate and improve your campaign performance within Google advertising.

The truth is that PPC advertising newbies perceive this channel as either a ‘genie’s wish’ for luxury search engine conversion, or are too much of reluctant ‘fraidy-cats’ to invest their money online.

Some marketers or online ad investors view this digital channel by saying either:

‘It takes money to make money so why not invest big?’

OR

‘What’s the point of online advertising if I hear it doesn’t work?’

Now that’s a static mindset you may have developed, thereby guiding your decisions with emotion over rational consistency.

The safest option to revamping your approach to online advertising in 2019 is to start a small budget within your means first, before pinpointing the positives of running your campaign.

Without a doubt, there will be negative performance for the first few campaigns ran; however pinpoint the positive factors such as higher impressions and clicks. This guides much more logical thinking towards the ad creative (e.g. title, keywords, copy, etc.) you’ve drafted the campaign with for future 2019 ads and favourable results over time.

So what’s next for your 2019 digital?

Overall, there was a fair amount of info ground covered regarding your 2019 marketing strategy as a business or upcoming brand.

Yet, we want you to not just read this and forget; but rather read this and ACT!

The most recommended advice is to analyse the key topics and its issues we discussed and implement within your digital marketing for the new year.

Every year, new mistakes and challenges within marketing practices arise; yet revising your previous mistakes and discomforts to your improvement reveals persistency and dedication to excelling your business and marketing goals through digital.

Drop us a comment in 2019 on how the application went from this article to fruition and results in your business.

Regardless of the misconceptions of email marketing being traditional and downright overused, this marketing channel still matters for online campaigns and outreach.

Hope you’re still reading B2B and B2C marketers?

Yes, email is a popular method of keeping in touch with your fans, potentials and retained subscribers in business.

No one ever disputes that.

However, the art of creating great email with impact relies on your ability to understand your audience, tone of voice and embracing the passion of written language.

For all buzzing marketers, entrepreneurs or C-Level executives; here are some helpful tips on copywriting for winning email:

Too much text and you’ve lost them

Email copywriting isn’t easy for excited marketers.

One of the greatest mistakes is bombarding your final recipient with a gazillion rows of text and font sizes.

Whether it’s your latest blog release, seasonal offer or company update, too much text drains out the attention span to 0 in this aesthetically visual world of today.

Although you wish to keep the reader sufficiently informed, every great email marketer must master breaking down and summarising text for the best retention possible.

People are receiving and reading emails endlessly everyday.

Off smartphones when getting out of bed, on cramped public transport, and even off computer screens just 10-15 mins before lunch breaks.

‘What makes your email any different?’

‘How can you make your final message shorter and succinct?’

Ask yourself these 2 questions and ensure the text quantity is enjoyable for a happier, retained subscriber.

Understand your audience and tone of voice

Who’s your fan or customer?

Do you consider their wants, needs and aspirations?

How do you address them?

Once you’ve answered these questions according to your knowledge, you’ve cracked only 50% of planning successful email copywriting.

The other 50% is consistent execution of this amongst your targeted email database.

If you’re in B2B, you’ll be dealing with a specific number of professional individuals subscribed or contacting you for 3 reasons:

Industry news

Client liaison

Ongoing business development.

For this reason, keep the email copy straightforward, contextually goal-orientated and mutually beneficial for greater engagement.

For B2C companies and brands, your email copy and tone-of-voice should be friendly, product or service-focused within a scenario, and spark an emotional response upon leading towards your call-to-action.

This way, both clients, customers and fans acknowledge you’ve considered them first when crafting your email text, and with favourable results and patience; they’ll be engaged with positive expectations of your email outreach.

Always proof-read and contextualise

Like any other important piece of literary work you’ve written – proof-reading into context is vital for any winning email copy.

Treat every word and punctuation usage with vigilance as you would stepping across a rushing river on a vertically-led, dispersed rock path.

Every email campaign’s copy for your marketing outreach must be organised and follow a story-like rhythm.

Why is that?

Your final reader needs seduction from your email language so much that it becomes an enjoyable, attractive flow from start to proposed action.

Moreover, your language represents your business’ care into email – make the copy their pleasure to read and act!

Never forget your final goal

Whether you’re a non-for-profit to a profit-based business, your email has a task to achieve.

Some may be the best copywriters in town and spark unforgettable chemistry everyone marvels over with words, writing style and great context.

Yet, if you don’t make your end-goal clear and authoritative during the email’s latter stages; the efforts will have gone all to waste.

People always ask even before reading ‘What’s the catch or purpose of this?’

Even your loyal customers and clients too.

Subscriptions, downloads, social media follows, click for shop discounts – these are all key examples of common call-to-actions assisting your final goal.

Make your copy worth their eye-squinting, brain-processing and time for a favourable, higher chance of marketing conversion.

Try these simple yet crucial rules for 2 weeks and comment back below on any progress you’ve noticed for email success.